Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/7855009.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Graphic_Depictions_Of_Violence, Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Undertale_(Video_Game)
  Character:
      Sans_(Undertale), Papyrus_(Undertale), Alphys_(Undertale), Undyne_
      (Undertale), Grillby_(Undertale), Various_Grillby_Regulars, Snowdin
      Residents_(Undertale), Gerson_(Undertale), Toriel_(Undertale), Asgore
      Dreemurr, Asriel_Dreemurr
  Additional Tags:
      Horrortale_AU_-_Freeform, Blood, Death, Starvation, Trauma, Cannibalism,
      Murder, Insanity, Dementia, PTSD, Depression, Self-Loathing, Suicidal
      Thoughts, Suicide_Attempt
  Stats:
      Published: 2016-08-24 Updated: 2016-09-10 Chapters: 2/? Words: 4600
****** Horrortale Redemption ******
by riotoncloudnine
Summary
     A new human is in the Underground, fifty years after 'Chara' left it
     hopeless. This is just a thing I'm writing based on the Horrortale-AU
     by sour-apple-studios, if you want more information look them up on
     tumblr or deviantART.
***** Part One - Agatha *****
There was a sickness in the Underground, hot and feverish like some kind of
infection. It'd taken ages for Alphys to garner up enough courage to call for
help.... and the things she had to do to get that help...
It put her days as the Royal Scientist to shame.
But what else could she do? Besides... it's not like she killed anyone
herself.... no, they were already dead.
They left the bodies to rot. It was just two decades after Chara had left the
Underground hopeless that she first saw someone die on her cameras. Now that it
was over half a century and things had gone from bad to worse and the monster
scientist realized she needed to be determined. For some reason there were more
humans falling down in the Underground than ever, as if someone was just
tossing them down there. They were all scared and weak; useless souls, like
whoever was doing it was taunting the the trapped monsters.
But now, there was a new human in the Underground. Agatha was her name, and
unlike the rest she hadn't been tricked - she knew exactly was she was getting
into.
The door to the Ruins closed solemnly behind her, the feeling of ragged, white
fur holding her warmly still fresh in her memory.
"Don't worry, Toriel..." She said, knowing full well the monster woman could
still hear her, "I'm not like the rest." She said pointedly, "Just... take care
of that thing I gave you. It's very important... I'll need it later."
One vast difference was the age of this new human. Normally it was small,
starving children or ragged vagrants, but Agatha was at least twenty and well
fed. On the surface wars had left many children orphaned and without food; easy
targets for whatever maniac was tricking them. She raised her arm to gaze at
her wrist, a watch-like device that functioned as an all-purpose phone called a
FIGURE was there, and she left a simpler one with Toriel to keep her updated,
as well as something else. They were easy things to use and ran on magic
crystals.
Yes. Magic.
One good thing Chara had done was reintroduce the surface to it; however, this
had other consequences. Things were finally starting to settle down when Agatha
noticed a myriad of children going missing more often than before, and after
looking into it she came across a strange, out-dated recording device. The
thing was beat up, haphazardly put together and powered by... well, she didn't
like to think about that.
While adjusting the straps of her large, stuffed duffle bag she began her trek
along the path, noting the dead trees to her left and the sheer cliff side to
her right.
At the time curiosity had gotten the better of her. Having expected the
dialogue of a psychopath given that the machine was constructed of human parts,
she was met with the scared, crazed expression of a yellow, lizard-like
creature in a lab coat.
"Th-... this is the f-fortieth machine I've s-s-sent to the surface... My name
is Dr. Alphys... I've... stopped hoping it will reach someone... But I have to
keep doing something or I'll... I'll..." She started crying, holding her face
in her clawed hands, "Who am I kidding...? I'm a-already c-c-crazy... ev...
everyone is.." wild, desperate eyes peered back at the camera, immediately
making Agatha feel like she was looking at an animal trapped in a vicious trap
with no escape, "B-b-but pl-please... if anyone... if anyone g-g-gets this...
Monsters ar-are still trapped in the Un... Underground... Undyne, she..."
Alphys peered at the ground and hesitated to continue, "Wh-when Asgore w-went
missing... sh-sh-she took over. Th-things were okay at first... but... th-then
something happened... P-people had lost hope f-for so long, they... They
started going crazy..." She hugged herself, "And even Undyne... Papyrus,
Sans..." She shivered, "All my friends... everyone... even me..." her voice was
a whimper, struggling to choke out words.
"I-i c-c-can't do a-anything myself... I... I just screw e-everything up...
So... I'm doing the o-only thing I c-can do well.. Build robots... m-maybe...
one day... s-someone will get this... and help..." She started sobbing.
The rest of the tape was just her crying hopelessly, before she seemed to
remember it was recording and turned it off.
The remaining data on the device was filled with information pertaining to the
Underground; maps, files on different monsters, stats on the weather patterns,
monster souls, magic, all with crazed babble written in strange symbols strewn
about in it. It also held the frequency to a signal.
Now that she was out of the ruins, maybe this thing would work... On her other
wrist were the remains of the device combined with an older FIGURE model, the
more unsavory bits of the construct had been given a proper burial. It only
took a bit of adjusting before static emitted sharply from the thing's speaker.
With a skeptical look she pushed the transmit button and spoke tentatively,
"Hello...?"
Silence.
She pushed the button again, "Hello...? You said... you said your name was
Doctor Alphys."
Silence.
Agatha paused a moment, trying to figure out something to say that might make
the monster respond, if she was even still alive. "Look... I met Toriel."
Scratchy static sounded from the device as if someone was scrabbling with the
mic, making Agatha perk up hopefully.
"If you're there, Alphys... just hang tight. I'm outside of the Ruins. You said
in your maps that it takes a few hours to get to your lab in Hotlands," she
trudged through the snow, nearly slipping on some black ice beneath it, "I'll
do my best not to take to long. And don't worry... I'm not like the kids that
have been ending up down here. I'll keep this thing on - I plugged in a
different power source. You don't have to worry about that SOUL suffering
anymore."
More scratchy static, and the garbled but familiar voice sobbing.
She gave a patient smile, "Take deep breaths. You don't have to say anything.
Stay safe."
It was a bit colder than she'd expected, but tightening her black trench-coat
and pulling on some matching gloves fixed that. Alphys had warned her data was
a decade old, her cameras had been found and smashed to smithereens and she was
to scared to even try installing new ones. So far, however, it seemed accurate
enough. The duffle bag she carried was heavy, yes, but necessary - so she
pushed on without letting it bother her.
Soon enough, she came to the tell-tale bridge. She tilted her head to the side
at the rotting corpses dangling from the badly constructed barricade, but she
meandered through easily enough. According to the data Alphys had sent her
there were myriads of possible monster encounters from this point forwards, but
so far she she saw little to no evidence of anyone frequenting the woodland
path. No broken twigs, no evidence of magic, and most notably no footprints.
That is... until she came upon a sentry station. Here there were plenty of
footfalls... and here and there some splattered blood frozen to a tree. The
station itself was constructed of sturdy wood but it had clearly seen better
days; it's roof was sagging slightly, covered in scratches and dents, as well
as deep, reddish-brown stains. She didn't have to think to hard to guess what
that was.
What caught her attention most was the form of a skeleton hunkered down on the
counter-surface of the station, a hole in the top of his skull rather prominent
from this angle. Draped loosely on his body was a worn out looking blue hoodie,
with spatters of red on the sleeves where he rested his head. If she had to
guess... he was maybe about her height, if not taller than her measly five foot
two inches- it was hard to tell when someone was sitting on an uneven, snowy
surface.
"Hey." she called out.
The gray-toned skeleton kept snoozing.
A smirk came to her lips, "I know you're faking it..." She kept her tone
purposefully even and calm.
A blood red glow erupted from his left eye socket, sending an eerie chill down
her back - but she'd been expecting that. Alphys had warned monsters with a lot
of 'LV' tended to have red eyes. "perceptive one, aren't ya?" his voice came
out gravely dark, a smile permanently sculpted into his skull.
"I try to be. You must be Sans, right?" she tilted her head to the side,
inwardly amused at his surprised expression.
"uh... yeah..." His eye sockets narrowed at her, something she found odd since
he didn't have any eyebrows or any discernible flesh, but eh... Monsters were
made of magic.
Agatha plopped the duffle bag in the snow next to her, opening it and being
thankful she'd tied her dark brown hair into a long braid - otherwise it
would've been everywhere at this point. She began digging through the myriad of
contents, hearing the wood of the sentry station creek as Sans peered over it.
It was clear he was shocked even though he tried to keep an intimidating
expression - he'd never seen a human actually prepared to be down here. Finally
she withdrew a small, square container and handed it to him, "Here."
"what's that? it ain't Christmas," he snapped at her.
Agatha kept her voice even, and gave no appearance of his growl scaring her,
even as her blood felt chilled for the second time. "It's a week's worth of
food. At least for soldiers," his eye sockets looked skeptical, "And you're
going to take it because you're curious." she said pointedly at him.
While he stared at her she noted that his right eye appeared to not work - it
remained dark while the left blazed a brilliant, ruby red and his bony fingers
drummed on the table. He snatched the box after a long moment, turning it this
way and that in his hands before opening it to find twenty-one different cubes,
seven white, seven tan, and seven brown. "this is food? yeah right..."
"Here. I'll show you." She took a paper plate from the bag as well as a plastic
fork, going right up to him and taking one of the cubes, "It's dehydrated with
magic..." his eye sockets enlarged again.
From her belt she unhooked a canteen, untwisted the cap and poured a mouthful
of water onto the cube. "It doesn't taste the best... most of them kind of
taste like a mix of oatmeal or mashed potatoes... But what do you expect out of
something artificially created in a lab?" she shrugged, the cube beginning to
swell and turn into mush as he handed him the fork, "But it's better than
nothing, right? Just wait another ten seconds or so and it should be ready..."
He stared at her, then the food, then her, then the food, then her... and took
the fork. "who the heck are you...?"
"Agatha. You must have a lot of questions. You can ask while you eat," she
leaned against the sentry station patiently, peering inside to take note of the
decomposing flesh, bloody condiments, packages of what looked to be moldy buns,
and cleavers. The fact she seemed so relaxed and neutral around him was...
disconcerting to Sans.
He started scooping up the mush into his mouth, the look a disgust only a
skeleton could make coming across his face. "all right then. how'd you know my
name? how are you so prepared?"
"Alphys." She said simply, looking at him through the corner of her eye. His
body stiffened at the name, like the word was some kind of forbidden curse.
"One of her robots made it to the surface. I found it." She turned her head
towards him completely to look at him, her expression aloof and unchanging.
That glow in his eye was ever present... but for a moment she thought it
flashed blue. Probably her imagination.
The rattling of bones was heard as he sharply looked back down at the meal,
scooping another fork full into his mouth to have it disappear into blackness,
"you mentioned magic... last i heard humans didn't have magic..."
"Chara changed that..." There was a sad tone in her voice though her face
remained the same, meanwhile his expression went from sour to downright pissed
off.
"It was a blessing and a curse. All those kids that manage to come down here?
Orphans from wars they started. Or hopeless vagrants. With all those SOULs
they'd taken from down here they brought magic back to the surface, using a
monster SOUL as a catalyst. Gave it to humans and laughed while they started
destroying each other."
Sans was silent. That kid had done all that? Another scoop of mush went into
his mouth, "Of course... they didn't say a word about this place," Sans growled
in anger, "if it was up to them, the Underground likely would have stayed a
secret... I guess something must have changed, however... The past year or so
quite a few of those orphans and vagrants have been going missing... I'm sure
you've met them, huh?" She looked at Sans, her expression one he didn't
understand.
It was clear what he'd done. What he'd been forced to do. The evidence was
rotting away behind him, and yet... she didn't seem afraid. No... that look on
her face was something else now. He wanted to know... he had to know, "why
aren't you runnin', then..." his words came out slow and gravely, dumping
another pile of mush down his gullet.
"Because it's not your fault," Agatha said, as if it were so simply... and
turned her head up towards the clouds. It was strange there were clouds in the
Underground, but according to the scientist the place was big enough and had
enough magic to have it's own atmosphere.
The answer caught him off guard, the fork hovering there in his hands on his
it's way to get more and shaking slightly.
"How do you make a tissue dance?"
He visibly flinched. There was a slight smile on her face... and something in
his 'stomach' ached. The following word came out cracked and slightly demented,
"how." It was said as more of a statement than a question in tone.
He stared at her, the shaking of his hand gradually increasing. It felt like
his SOUL was getting ripped in half. In an attempt to console himself, he
raised his right hand and gripped the lower half of his eye socket, making
sounds as if hyperventilating. Flashes of feelings he hadn't felt in literal
decades... memories of telling jokes before a laughing crowds... memories of a
time where his clothes weren't stained in blood.
"You put a little boogie in it," she said, her expression remaining aloof, but
there was a hint of a smile there and kindness in her eyes.
Agatha went to the front of the sentry station, reaching out and gently holding
onto his right wrist as it shook in her fingers. His bones were gray, some of
them looking cracked as if to match his mind. "You're not the only one who has
had to do terrible things for the sake of survival. It's not your fault." Her
other hand rested on the sentry station, blue eyes staring dead into his ruby
red, glowing socket.
"who... the hell... are you..." He choked out.
"I told you my name is Agatha. And I'm Chara's grand daughter."
***** Part Two - Determination *****
Chapter Summary
     Sans is furious. Also, a little more on life on the surface.
There was a deep red glow from behind her - she saw it on the wood supports of
the sentry station - and she jumped out of the way of a bright energy blast.
The skull of what appeared to be a dragon or canine had materialized from
magic, and as it began to crumble away into nothingness another soon appeared.
Sans had moved out of the way of his own attack, standing and pouring what
little remained of his meal into his mouth.
Clearly, he was furious; if the red, blazing glow of his left eye didn't prove
that, the myriad of bones flying at her did.
Agatha dodged out of all of them with fluid, trained movements, which only
seemed to make him madder. A red glow encapsulated her body and she felt tossed
against a tree, and even though it knocked the breath out of her she managed to
jump forward from the spiked bones that shot from the ground. Sans right hand
was gripping his right eye socket as he shouted, "HOLD. STILL!"
Long gone were the days of Sans letting someone else have a turn in a FIGHT.
That red soul of hers that floated in front of her chest glowed at him as if
mocking him. The answer to whether or not she was really Chara's grand daughter
staring at him in the face. How dare she come down here?! How dare she mock him
with kindness?! How dare she not fight back?! What's more, how dare she keep
jumping around and not HOLD STILL AND DIE ALREADY?!
"You can still good, Sans," Agatha said in an even, understanding tone as her
body tilted out of the way of multiple red blasts at once.
"JUST DIE!" He shouted, gripping his socket tighter.
"Why can't zoo animals take tests?" She asked, her voice remaining neutral
despite the heated battle.
"SHUT UP!"
"Because there are too many cheetahs."
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"
"Why can't you hear a pterodactyl - almost got me there - Why can't you hear a
pterodactyl use the bathroom?"
Sans gritted is teeth, "BE QUIET!"
"Because the 'p' is silent," there was the ghost of a smile on her face, the
long braid of her hair whipping about from her movements.
"ENOUGH!"
"What's invisible and smells like carrots?" Even though she was tossing her
body this way and that to get out of the way of his attacks, jumping out of
blasts and bones, she was still managing it... how infuriating.
"HOLD STILL!"
"Rabbit farts."
Not a single hit. He'd get close, but she'd dance out of his attacks like a
pro. It was clear she'd had some kind of combat training, unlike the majority
of the people the fell down here. Kicking himself for underestimating her, he
turned it up a notch. No more jokes.
He guided her dodges to a particular spot out in the open, Gaster Blasters
materializing in a circle around her and firing. She had to twist her body in a
circle, the skulls firing in a spiral pattern around her. Finally, her foot
caught on something under the snow - a disembodied rib cage. Numerous blasts of
red made contact - tossing her to the ground unceremoniously.
Sans breathed heavy, what seemed like red, shimmering sweat forming on his
skull. His right hand held a death grip on his sockets, while his left hand
reached out to guide his attacks, but it was trembling now.
Slowly and shakily, she got to her feet. His eyes widened, and she looked up at
him with a smile on her face, even as smoke sizzled from the burnt back of her
trench coat. This time it didn't make him angry... No, the feeling that filled
his bones was... something he thought he'd forgotten.
"I told you," her voice sounded sad, the look in her eyes despondent, "You're
not the only one that's had to do terrible things in order to survive." She
dusted off her clothes free of snow slowly, his left arm falling to his side in
a hopeless manner.
"I also told you I'm not going to let you do it anymore..." she went over to
him on shaky legs, and even though he stiffened in her embrace, her arms went
around him.
Warm arms. Human arms. Not unlike the ones he chopped free from still-living
bodies. Just an hour before he would have felt nothing thinking about that, but
now...
"It's okay, Sans... It's not your fault..."
Sans noticed her breathing was ragged. As high as her HP was, taking so many
Gaster Blasters directly plus their decaying effect had worn her down. Killing
her at this point would be so easy. All he'd have to do if reach around and
grab his cleaver from that sentry station... But instead, his left arm reached
around her and pulled her close.
Slow,y his right hand slid down from his eye socket and joined his left around
her. The things he'd done to keep his brother alive... to keep himself alive,
"it is... i made those decisions..." he said, his fingers digging into her
back.
"You were forced to make those decisions... No one would blame you for them...
and you shouldn't either."
"i turned my brother into a monster..." he said, his bones rattling in his
chest.
"I'll fix him up next... you're first..." she said, turning her head to the
side to look at him in the eye.
With his arms still around her, she reached up and put her hands on either side
of his face, "Do you trust me...?" she asked gently, the soft look in her eyes
pulling at his soul, with her own floating from her chest.
It was a strong soul, like Chara's had been... just floating there. He could
take it. But then what?
His eye sockets both went dark and he lowered his head. From this angle he
could really see that hole in his skull, "i..." though those dark pits were
empty, she could sense him peering at her, "might as well... i gave up caring a
long time ago..."
The ghost of a smile pulled at her lips, the dark around her eyes making the
damage he'd done to her all the more apparent, "That's not true and you know
it..."
"tch... fine..." he gave her an unamused expression, which turned to one of
confusion when she pulled away from him and went to her duffle bag.
His hands went into his pockets, subconsciously trying to make the warmth on
his fingers last as long as possible. For so long he's lived like this he
couldn't help pointing out all the choice cuts of meat on her body as she bent
over, no matter how hard he tried to shove it down. She wasn't food. "what're
you doing?"
From her bag she pulled a bunch of flasks. They looked to be made of glass, but
being haphazardly thrown into the bag and not breaking he figured they must be
made with something else. Some of them were intricately designed and others
rather plain, some of them holding liquid, others herbs, and still others some
kind of slime?
"Your soul is fractured," she said in a plain, emotionless tone like a doctor.
He let out a grunt of surprise but she continued, "That's why your body's in
the condition it is... you didn't always look so scary."
"alphys tell ya that?" he said in a sour tone.
She selected a few vials along with an empty one and straightened, going over
to the sentry station to use it as a work table, "She sent pictures," came the
simple answer.
He followed her with his gaze, by now it'd settled back to blood red.
Eventually he walked behind the station to sit back in his seat and watch her
work, fingers drumming on the wood. To keep himself busy he started piling the
food-cubes back into the box they came in, and stored that way in his jacket.
"Human souls are a lot like monster souls in the way they react to trauma, it
seems..." she said gently, awkwardly standing there while she waited for a
particularly viscous, brown mixture to make it's way to the opening of it's
flask to be poured into the waiting empty one.
"oh yeah?"
"Mhm... I've had to learn a lot of tricks over the years... I'm a bit older
than I look," There was a somewhat sad tone in her voice.
With a small amount of the brown mixture in the flask se put that one to the
side after making sure the cap was on tight. That stuff was hell to get out of
clothing, and sticky.
He kept drumming his fingers. One would think it'd be annoying, but she found
it... comforting, in a way. "Toriel is still alive, by the way." she added,
noting his form stiffening and his drumming pause slightly before picking back
up again.
"ya?"
"She's going to be all right," she said idly, taking a light pink liquid that
was in a rather sizeable container and pouring an amount into the flask she was
mixing things with.
Next came a blue, faintly glowing herb that looked familiar.
"hey, is that... an echo flower?"
"Mhm," came the gentle response, "Chara brought one back up with them...
eventually when cloning became a thing we were able to replicate them. They
became quite popular... Not just because of what they did, but for their potion
capabilities..."
"potions?" his brow furrowed, "first magic now potions? the hell is going on up
there?"
"A lot of bad stuff, until a decade or so ago when things started to take a
turn for the better... That was when Chara," she paused a moment, as perceptive
as he was he did catch that little tremble she gave, "Died." she finished the
thought, adding a few more liquids and a powder into the flask before capping
it and shaking it all together.
This caused the liquid to turn red and give a soft glow, Sans stared at it as
if hypnotized.
"What can be learned from their rule is that nothing bad lasts forever," she
said thoughtfully, watching the liquid as if waiting for something.
"Listen very carefully, Sans..." She said, her tone suddenly serious as she
leaned forward and stared into his eyes. "This isn't a cure-all, merely a means
to an end. The real power behind it is you... But I need to remind you that you
won't be alone. I won't be far."
"right..." he said, unsure, his eyes never leaving the glowing bottle.
Agatha hid the bottle behind her with a serious look on her face,"Hey. Did you
hear what I said?"
He jumped a bit and glared at her, "ya! i heard ya!"
Clearly she was skeptical, raising an eyebrow at him, "Repeat it."
He rolled his eyes, the drumming of his fingers increasing in annoyance,
"seriously?"
"Yes, I am. This isn't something to forget willy-nilly, this stuff can be
dangerous if not used properly..."
With an exasperated sighed he repeated what she said, "This isn't a cure-all,"
she smirked wrily at the mocking feminine tone he added to the voice, "Merely a
means to an end. The real power behind it is you. But I need to remind you that
you won't be alone. I won't be far."
She gave him a satisfied smile, suddenly leaning forward and giving a soft kiss
to his forehead, "Thank you," she said, smirking at his growl and handing him
the flask, "Drink it private when you're ready too... don't be alarmed if it
hurts immensely at first, given the condition of your body that is likely to
happen...." she thoughtfully took hold of the hand that'd been drumming,
inspected the grayed color and cracks.
Sans yanked his hand away with a grunt, "all right, doc..." he stared at the
liquid, narrowing his eyes at it, "what... is this stuff, anyways?"
Agatha paused for a moment, "On the surface..." she paused again, "It's called
Determination."
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